HOLD ON!
I’m probably a fair bit like the majority of people when I’m wanting to get to some place on time – my concentration is on making sure I’m on schedule – if I’m taking the metro, making sure it’s the right one and it’s going in the right direction. Sometimes in my peripheral vision I will be aware of others – we may be on collision course and I have to take evasive action – they may be sticking parking tickets on cars – or they may be rummaging through litter bins – whatever! They don’t normally disturb my focus on getting to wherever on time.
Unless, for instance, they are like the group who were on the platform as I was descending from the Metro the other day. No, they weren’t playing music with Andean pipes and a backing track; neither were they asking for money because they were cold and hungry. Instead, they were rummaging through the litter bin! “Nothing odd there”, you may say. No, except that they were dressed in fur coats and were already laden down with shopping bags bearing the logos of some of the most prestigious establishments in town – ones that I could certainly never afford to loiter in with intent. I was beginning to wonder whether maybe there might be more profit in this rummaging business than I had ever dreamt possible.
I decided I’d have to wait until some time I wasn’t wearing my dog collar before testing that theory, and returned to focussing on getting to my destination in time. I had only gone a few more paces when there was the solution – staring me in the face! Not that one generally would refer to a ticket inspector as a solution, but he sure was staring me in the face, and I wasn’t getting by until I showed him my ticket which, fortunately, I had held on to – unlike, I suspect, the ‘poor’ people who were rummaging through the litter bin!
Isn’t it extraordinary how it often happens that something doesn’t occur for long periods and then all of a sudden it seems to keep happening all the time? That’s how it’s been with me and metro ticket inspectors – I don’t think I even saw one in the first year I was here – so much so that I was beginning to admire how trusting a nation the French were! And now, out of the last ten or so times I have been on the Metro, I have run into the checkers at least five times, and you can be sure that nowadays I’m always ready for them!
In today’s gospel Jesus, with good reason, had some serious doubts as to how ready his apostles were for the events that were shortly to confront them. Despite all the time He had spent with them they still weren’t ready for a suffering Messiah. He was aware that they would be shocked when He allowed Himself to be taken prisoner and eventually executed like a common criminal. He realised that their faith in Him would be sorely tested. He wanted to give them something more substantial than a Metro ticket to hold on to! He wanted them to have just a glimpse of the glory that waited beyond the Passion – of the new life that would come after the death on the cross. He wanted to leave them, and us, with a hope to hold on to. Why rummage among the litter when He, our Treasure, is always on hand? |
